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Odds & Ends 11/16

This turkey knows how to escape the Thanksgiving table NEW YORK — Perhaps attempting to escape a Thanksgiving Day fate, a small wild turkey made a dash for the big city. The 10-pound female bird wandered onto a busy bridge’s toll plaza Tuesday afternoon, halting traffic for about 15 minutes as workers chased the fowl. No one knew how the turkey got onto the Triborough Bridge, which connects the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. City officials received a call that there was a loose bird just before the start of the evening rush hour, and six officers chased it around the Manhattan toll plaza. ‘‘Watching it unfold on our cameras, it seemed the only thing missing was someone playing ’Turkey in the Straw,’’’ said Triborough Bridge General Operations Manager Ray Bush. The frightened turkey skittered back and forth across the plaza, evading capture for 15 minutes. Bridge officers finally cornered it, and a construction worker snatched it. The turkey was released into a wooded area on nearby Wards Island, which has acres of open land inhabited by pheasants, rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks.Hong Kong couple pays over $150,000 for a fungus HONG KONG — A large Italian white truffle apparently reigns as the world’s most expensive fungus. A Hong Kong property tycoon and his wife have reportedly paid $160,406 for the truffle, which auctioneers say could be the most expensive ever purchased. Gordon Wu and his wife outbid connoisseurs from France and Italy to win the 3.3-pound Alba white truffle in an international auction, a spokeswoman for the Ritz-Carlton hotel, which hosted the Hong Kong part of the auction, said Tuesday. ‘‘They’re very unique. They’re found all together and they’ve got a beautiful shape,’’ said hotel cook Umberto Bombana of this year’s prize truffle, made of three palm-sized portions. Bombana will prepare the giant truffle for a five-course banquet hosted by Wu. It was the second time Hong Kong bidders won a pricey fungus at the annual auction, held in Grizane, Italy, with satellite links to Paris and Hong Kong. Proceeds from the auction — which also featured five smaller truffles — will go to a Hong Kong charity that cares for pregnant girls and organizes adoptions.Man escapes police but can't get his handcuffs off OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — A man being questioned in connection with the theft of more than $5,000 in jewelry managed to slip police — but not his handcuffs. Terry S. Davis, 34, who authorities say has an extensive criminal record, escaped on Nov. 3 from the Oak Ridge Police Department’s interrogation room. He was nabbed nine days later, still wearing the handcuffs. Davis was able to sever the chain joining the handcuffs but told police the remaining restraints were raising welts on his wrists, according to Capt. Rick Stone. After his getaway, he eluded officers in two separate foot chases before being arrested at his home Sunday night.Group attempts to save a building that has already been torn down SUPERIOR, Wis. — An attempt to get a court to stop the bulldozing of historic Palace Theater had a fatal flaw: the wrecking ball had already done its work. ‘‘You cannot save a building if it doesn’t exist,’’ U.S. District Judge John Shabaz said in a teleconference Tuesday while hearing a motion for an injunction to block the demolition. ‘‘The entire motion appears to be moot.’’ The building, a historic vaudeville and movie house that opened in 1917, came down nearly two weeks ago, and crews were still hauling away rubble Tuesday. Shabaz granted an opportunity for the Friends of Superior to amend their complaint and proceed to a trial, which he scheduled March 29. Kris Fisher, president of the group, said that by demolishing the building, the city disregarded the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Advisory Council for Historic Preservation and the federal court. ‘‘They need to understand the rule of law prevails,’’ she said.

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